A rainy Saturday night failed to dampen the exuberance in Little Rock's Robinson Center during the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra's annual Beethoven & Blue Jeans program. Conductor and Music Director Philip Mann led the casually attired but sharply focused orchestra in spirited performances of one audience favorite after another, balancing the exotic and the familiar.
Two contrasting works spotlighting violinist Gareth Johnson formed the centerpiece of the evening: Ludwig van Beethoven's Romance No. 2 in F Major, Op. 50, and Maurice Ravel's Tzigane, rhapsodie de concert. (The performance order was strategically reversed for greater contrast in tempo and tone from the sequence that appears in the printed and online program.)
Johnson commanded the stage from the moment he lifted his bow in Beethoven's Romance No. 2. The measured, single-movement rondo afforded the soloist an opportunity to explore a deep yet contained emotional range with subtlety and grace. Conductor Mann and the orchestra developed the opening theme with admirable classical-era precision.
The soloist's virtuosity was on full display with Ravel's gypsy-inspired Tzigane, from the unaccompanied opening through the spiraling dynamic interaction between soloist and orchestra. Outstanding harp passages added to the delight.
The concert got off to a kick-out-the-jams start with Camille Saint-Saens' Bacchanale, from the composer's opera Samson et Dalila. The show-stopping attack on timpani, bass drum and other percussive instruments was one of the concert's many highlights.
Opening the second part of the program, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty Suite, Op. 66a, showcased Mann's and the orchestra's polished yet powerful cohesiveness in their exhilarating treatment of the well-loved work.
Romanian composer Georges Enesco's Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 in A Major, Op. 11 -- with its Romanian folk references, exotic coloring and beautiful oboe section -- brought the concert to a spectacular conclusion in a whirling, accelerating dance.
It is no overstatement to say that in Mann's ninth season as music director and in the fifth concert of the current ASO season, conductor, orchestra and guest soloist achieved perfection -- or something very much like it.
Violinist, orchestra, conductor and blue jeans reassemble for a repeat at 3 p.m. today at Robinson, 426 W. Markham St. in Little Rock. Ticket information is available by calling (501) 666-1761 or online at arkansassymphony.org. The Beer & Brats Street Party will begin at 1 p.m. today. Admission to the party is free with a ticket to Beethoven & Blue Jeans.
Metro on 04/14/2019